Go to the grave in all thy glorious pride [prime]. J. Montgomery. [Burial.] Written in February, 1823, on the death of the Rev. John Owen, for some years a Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, who died at the close of 1822. In the issue of the Sheffield Iris for Dec. 21, 1824, it is given with the following note:—
“These lines were written nearly two years ago, at the request of a friend, and were not then designed for general circulation. This month, however, they have appeared in a popular periodical work by consent of the author. The circumstance is only mentioned to account for their late and perhaps unsuitable publication here."
The "popular periodical work" in which it appeared was the Christian Observer, Dec, 1824. In 1825 Montgomery included it, with the alteration of "glorious pride" to "glorious prime”, in his Christian Psalmist, No. 533, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, with the heading, “On the death of a Minister cut off in his usefulness." It was repeated in his Original Hymns, 1853. On May 11, 1854, stanzas iii.-vi. (stanzas i., ii. being omitted as unsuitable) were sung at Montgomery's funeral, to the tune “Brading," by Dr. Callcott, "arranged by W. H. Callcott." One of the first to bring this hymn into common use was Dr. Martineau, in his Hymns, &c, 1840. Its use in America is more extensive than in Great Britain.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >
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